Beloved radio friends, in the precious and the worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we warmly greet you, giving you a hearty welcome to the study of God's precious Word. This is your Bible Teacher of the Air speaking, J.W. Bramhall. We welcome you to the beginning of a study from the Epistle of Jude on the subject of apostasy. We never have been living in such a day as now when guidance and encouragement together with warning is so greatly needed from God's word in relation to the departure from the truth that is so prevailing in every direction. The location of this epistle of Jude next to the book of the Revelation reminds us that we must be close. to the coming again of our Lord Jesus when we see the spiritual apostasy so greatly increasing in these closing days. Significantly, every period of human history has proved that man is unable to be obedient to the advantages and the truths that God may give to him. For God gives these advantages and lays upon mankind corresponding responsibility. But man as exhibited complete inability to morally and to spiritually fulfill the purposes of God for him. And likewise in the history of the church, beginning at Pentecost, and which will close, by the coming again of the Lord Jesus for his bride, there has been through this great dispensation of grace the evidence of moral and spiritual failure throughout it all. Jude's epistle in its chief subject concerns apostasy. And may I suggest as we cover the subject, we desire to trace it in a threefold way. Jude reveals the commencement of apostasy when it began in relation to the church age. Jude also reveals the continuation of apostasy, how it has gone on and still continues to go on during the church age. Jude also reveals in his epistle the consummation of apostasy with its inevitable doom under the judgment of God. Now let us begin the epistle by looking at the salutation in verses one and two. Jude the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that are sanctified in God the Father or by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, mercy unto you and peace and love, be multiplied. Let us dwell upon for just a moment or two the setting of this wonderful salutation, in view of the apostate conditions that you and I are living in today. Every observant believer realizes, and we meet them on every hand today, that there is a great departure from the truth of God the Bible. Then we who are the saved of God, how blessed are recognized he has set us apart, And set apart by God the Father, we are preserved in Jesus Christ and have been so called. But how we need the exhortation that follows. The ministry of his mercy. The ministry of his peace. And the ministry of his love. May I point out to you as I do to my own heart. The great necessity. Of enjoying God's mercy upon us. And unto us. in such days of spiritual declension as we now live in. May I also point out the great need not only of God's mercy, but of His peace. Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin. The blood of Jesus whispers peace within. And that peace which the Lord gave in John, fourteen, twenty-seven, when He declared, My peace, peace I leave with you, my peace give I unto you. None as the world giveth give eye unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. May God help us, and I say it very earnestly, as his beloved people, to not only have his mercy, but to enjoy his peace. And then, best of all, to have the enjoyment of his love. And what joy it is to know, regardless as to the failure that we may see around us, and regardless to the failure that we may even feel and know to be within us, God still loves his own. And so may mercy and peace and love be multiplied unto God's dear children in these days of apostasy. Now as Jude begins writing directly to the beloved saints of God in verse three, we may realize that the Spirit of God turned his efforts to write from a subject that was before him to the subject of apostasy. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Now let us realize, though it is very evident, Jude had a purpose in writing, first of all, in regard to the great salvation that belongs to the people of God in Christ. In company and in fellowship with his companion apostles and other writers, Jude evidently took up his pen to write concerning the Savior, concerning the salvation that is ours in the Lord Jesus, and yet seems to have been turned by the Holy Spirit, no doubt, immediately to write concerning something more needful. And that was to exhort, to encourage, that the believers should be very faithfully and earnestly contending for the truth of God, which has once and for all been delivered unto the saints. Now let us dwell upon the exhortation of this latter part of the verse. For this is one of the central truths within the Holy Epistle of exhortation that we shall need in applying the apostate conditions to our hearts and seeking God's guidance and counsel for the path. For Jude writes to encourage the believers to contend earnestly for the truth of God. Now may I explain very carefully the two words, the faith, embraced by its meaning the truth of God. There are two meanings to the use of the word faith. It is sometimes implying the energy or the action of faith, which we thus use and exercise in our hearts and in our lives. But there is a second meaning to the word, and particularly when the word faith is preceded by the definite article, as in this case, the meaning of the expression is the truth or the word of God. And we are encouraged and earnestly exhorted to contend for the truth of God. And please know, it has been once, as well as for all, delivered unto the saints. My fellow believer, may I state this to your heart as well as to mine, the truth that God has given to you and to me, and delivered unto us, we are to hold it fast. We are to stand upon it. We are not to let it go. It was the wise man who wrote in the book of the Proverbs, By the truth, and sell it not. My fellow believer, may I make a few words of exhortation to your heart as well as to mine? Whatever truth that you have been given and that I have learned from God's precious and holy word, hold it fast. Do not give it up. There is always a person that is bidding for it. That person who bids for the truth is the devil. As the wise man said, buy the truth, whatever it costs you to learn the truth of God. He says, buy the truth and sell it not. And then may I state, there is oftentimes a price that we pay for the truth. Now I know that God gave his word gratuitously. It was written by the power and through the Holy Spirit, through holy men of old. And the word of God is the gift of God to us. But let me speak very carefully and advisedly. My fellow believer who has learned some of God's truth, have not you and I learned some of that truth, perhaps in an expensive way? That is, we paid a price. We had to sacrifice in order to enjoy the truth. And I say it very reverently. We appreciate the truth when we have paid a price and made a sacrifice to obtain it. Beloved, Satan is always busy and anxious to buy a promise by offering something else. to lead us to depart from the truth that we have purchased and that God has imparted unto us. But now may I make a wider embrace of this application. The whole word of God is the truth of God for the believer. That precious word from the beginning to the end, you and I must hold fast to it. and particularly in these days of apostasy, how necessary to take the exhortation of the Apostle as he exhorts us to earnestly contend. And when the Apostle says, Contend for the faith, he is not indicating that we should have a contentious attitude, a contentious spirit, a contentious soul, in that spirit of contentiousness, what the apostle is saying is, Stand up for the truth. Don't let anyone take the truth away from you. Hold it fast, for it has been delivered unto you, and delivered to be kept. My fellow believer, if there's one truth we would like to leave for your heart and for mine, as we begin this study of apostasy, and close this first message. It is this fact. When you and I know Christ is our Savior, and the Word of God we believe is the truth of God, we should hold that fast. May God help us to do so. Father, we pray that in the name of the Lord Jesus and the energy of the Holy Spirit, we may as thy children in these great days of difficulty and apostasy Be true to the word of God, for Jesus' sake. Amen.